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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26975197">Better Is Worse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanandsam/pseuds/deanandsam'>deanandsam</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Loose tag to The French Mistake, One Shot, Season/Series 06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:22:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>763</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26975197</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanandsam/pseuds/deanandsam</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam thinks back on his experience in The French Mistake's reality. Would his life really have been better there?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Better Is Worse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sam cranked open the trunk.</p><p>Recently, he'd taken to browsing around second-hand shops whenever he got the chance, and although much of the stuff on sale was crappy, now and then he'd discover a hidden pearl, like this old treatise on Chinese water spirits. He added it to the slowly-growing cache of books he kept in the back corner of the Impala's trunk, anticipating a quiet moment when he could give it his undivided attention.</p><p> </p><p>His eyes fell casually on one of those weird Supernatural books by Carver Edlund that Dean had insisted on keeping.</p><p>" You never know when they might come in useful, Sammy," his sibling had admonished, wagging a finger at him.</p><p>"Right!" Sam had just huffed and shaken his head at his brother in disbelief. God, their lives were weird.<br/>
Being hunters was already something completely alien to any normal person, but to have been designated as vessels for Michael and Lucifer and have had a friggin' Gospel written about you into the bargain, well...What the Hell…!</p><p> </p><p>The book brought to mind their brief visit to that other universe where they were actors on a televised version of the stories.</p><p>He and Dean had never really talked about that experience again, and Sam still wasn't quite sure if that world really existed at all or if Balthazar had been powerful enough to have created some temporary dream world like the Jinn.</p><p>Not that it mattered anyway!<br/>
They were Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers and not two douche-bag actors who possessed identical faces and bodies but didn't even speak to each other!</p><p> </p><p>However, he mused, that universe hadn't been without its perks; big house, plenty of money, and weirdest of all, an actress who was a twin to the last incarnation of the Ruby demon, and his doppelganger–Padalecki's wife.</p><p>He wondered curiously if there was some lesson to be taken from that. Did it mean that he too had felt some sort of sentimental attachment to this world's Ruby, other than the addiction to her blood? He grimaced at the thought.</p><p> </p><p>He tried to analyze the whole thing unemotionally. Would he have been attracted to the woman if she hadn't been possessed by Ruby? He knew he had a weakness for a certain typology of girl, nearly always preferring attractive brunettes; women who were intelligent and could hold a conversation on any subject.</p><p>There was no denying that the Ruby host had fitted his parameters as far as beauty was concerned, and he wondered what she'd been like as a person before she'd fallen into an irreversible coma, died, and been possessed by the demon.</p><p>Yes, he concluded, he could possibly have fallen for the original woman; so he supposed that the otherworld Jared, if he had his selfsame tastes, could conceivably have married her human double.</p><p>With a wry grin, he recalled when she'd mistaken him for her husband. She'd dragged him upstairs to bed while Dean looked on amused, but he hadn't laid a finger on her, giving a lame excuse about having a migraine.<br/>
To the Jared of that world, she was just his actress wife, but she reminded him far too much of the spiraling world of drugs, treachery, and pain that demon Ruby had dragged him into, to even contemplate touching her.</p><p> </p><p>He'd been rather proud of the fact that he'd managed to keep his horror under control when he'd first seen her. It had been great acting on his part and he laughed thinking back on the way he and Dean had performed so awkwardly when actually asked to act on a set!</p><p> </p><p>Then Dean had generously offered to stay in that dimension and let Sam live that comfortable existence.<br/>
A world without magic, demons, or anything supernatural could have compensated for the life of fear and suffering that his little brother had endured, but Sam hadn't even paused to consider it.</p><p> </p><p>In that reality, he'd have been forced into the identity of Jared Padalecki and Dean, Jensen Ackles, and although they'd certainly have "talked" to each other, they wouldn't have been seen as siblings, and all the money, fame, attractive actress wives, or easy living could ever substitute the loss of the name Winchester and of their brotherhood.</p><p> </p><p>He closed the trunk, a feeling of contentment in his soul as he watched Dean confidently made his way to the driver's door. There was nothing he could desire more than having Dean as his brother, and his heart was light as he took his place in the Impala next to him.</p><p>The end</p>
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